Rent Srike Workshop For Schools

Understanding Solidarity through the Glasgow Rent Strikes 1915

^^Ithough Rents were an issue in Glasgow by 1913 when John Maclean and The British Socialist

Party set up the Scottish Federation of Tenants' Associations the Strikes did not start until May 1915.
Many peaceful activities were used to prevent evictions and drive out the Sheriffs officers with
constant meetings in an attempt to be one step ahead of them. "All manner of communication was
used to summon help , everything from drums , bells , trumpets and anything that could be used to
create a warning sound to rally the supporters who were mainly women as the men were at work in
the yards and factories at these times. They would then indulge in cramming into closes and stairs to
prevent the entry of the Sheriffs officers and so prevent them from carrying out their evictions. They
also used little paper bags of flour, peasmeal and whiting as missiles directed at the bowler hatted
officers." Radical Glasgow website about the 1915 Rent Strike

The Woodcraft Folk recreated those times from eyewitness accounts through their craft work. They
made - a papier mache Sheriff Officer, Window Campaign Posters, cast votes in their Union, and
visited the key streets and districts by weaving the wool network. They recreated noises and actions
used to stop delivery of the Notices of Ejectment.

Young people explored the theme through discussion of their own experiences at home of the
following:

What is a home? What is Rent? What is a Tenant? What is a Landlord? Who coexists in the Rent

relationship? Who is powerful who is
vulnerable? What is a Factor? What is a
Notice of Eviction? What is Court? What is a
Sheriff Officer?

Activity ; Papier mache 3D model of Factor
Neilson, who owned many of the Linthouse
and Partick properties.

Discussion - Flow can tenants create Rent
Resistance to stop being thrown out of their
home?

Activity Materials

2D Cardboard - draw around tall figure , paint
3D Papier Mache; cellopaste http://www.hope-

education.co.uk/products/stationery/adhesives/specialist-adhesives/he280325 classmates-papier-
mache-paste

Garden Cane for structure sellotape joins, bin-bag for bulk body, cover in newspaper and then
coloured paper for papier mache.

Flour in paper bags

Understanding Solidarity through the Glasgow Rent Strikes 1915

-Fake ID's

Often described through the roles and lives of key players evidence indicates that tenants
themselves were the first to start off Petitions and spread the word. [Melling,1983;64] Therefore in
teaching the Rent Strike History the role of unknown and often forgotten masses of people is
crucial.This workshop gave young people the opportunity to act out Fake ID's taking on the daily

routines of well known and unknown
activists. Using coloured wool they
followed the routines of their Fake ID
Character moving around and hooking
up the wool strands at identified
location zones created around the
room. Some Fake Characters delivered
milk or attended school or work, and
others attended meetings or other
social events. In this way they could
build up a visible experience of a
network as their lives interlinked the wool strands creating a community weave where trust,
information, direct action could be passed on.

Activity ; Identified locations around the room, balls of wool different colours, Fake ID Cards

Solidarity

"Everyday established local networks were used by speakers to spread the word like
the back court washhouse or the co-op meetings, the 'vibrancy of women's organising
and strong lines of continuity over time and across different issues. ' [J.J.Smyth].

WCmKKK

KKmmx

I am a Union.

I am 20,000 people. #

Understanding Solidarity through the Glasgow Rent Strikes 1915

Meeting Places where trust and information could be built.

These networks were physically woven with strands of coloured wool to signify the
growing tight solidarity between the individuals and families who travelled between
them such as;

The Tenants Meetings

Carpet Factory

Glasgow Women's Housing Association

Amalgamated Society of Engineers

Independent Labour Party

Steamie at Harhill Street

The C o- operative Movement shops

Milners, Burleigh Street

Independent Labour Party

Telephone Exchange

Scottish Co-Operative Women's Guild

National Union of Miners

The Suffrage Campaign

Public Baths - Harhill Street

the Peace and Anti War movement

Ibrox Garage Transport Union Meeting

Shipyards- Fairfields

Clarion Scouts Cycling Club

Engineering works

Socialist Sunday school

Thermotank Engineering, Helen Street

Rope Works , Helen Street

Amalgamated Society of Shipwrights

Gas and General Workers Union

Electrical Trades Union

National Federation of Women Workers

Educational Institute of Scotland

Industrial Workers of the World

Associated Horsemen's Union, Greenock

Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General
Workers' Union of Great Britain

Albion Motor Works, Scotstoun

Women's Peace Crusade

Free Speech Committee

NB. The Fake ID Cards are fabricated, at times based on fact but

fictional daily chores and lifestyles. Some biographical details are
imaginary. Anyone who can work on this and correct anything please contact
and I will update the cards online. These can be printed free for use. S.R.

Understanding Solidarity through the Glasgow Rent Strikes 1915

Part 1-This workshop built upon the previous experience of building trust through a social network
to look closer at the working lives of the Fake ID Characters. Their roles in various War Industries -

Shipyards, Engineering works, Motor Works and so on made them powerful if they
threatened to withdraw their labour or down tools. Young people were given
Union Membership cards turning the individual into a much larger and powerful
force. I am 20,000 people. An injury to one is an injury to all.

Amalgamated Society
of Engineers

Part 2; Stop the Sherriff Officer!- The helpful design of the Tenement Close was
discussed and how history records that the families
organised themselves against the issue of the Notice of
Ejectment. Fake ID's from previous workshops had
allocated roles; Tenant, Union member, Lookout, Alarm
Raiser, Secretary, Blockader, Demonstrator. In this
Drama, the Landlord tries to increase the rent by using
the law to serve a Notice of Ejection to the Tenant- the
other characters must organise themselves to prevent
this being delivered.

Activity; Lookouts raise alarm - Pots, Pans, Rattles, Blockades
arrive with prams to the close - Flour bags, Prams,
Demostrators block the entrances- at times workers in the
Yards downed tools.

Things reach a head on 17 th November at the Small Claims
Court in Glasgow at the trial of 18 workers for eviction
following rent arrears and Eviction notices. John Maclean and
Flelen Crawfurd amongst others made speeches. Sheriff Lee
telephoned Lloyd George, Defence Minister and success is
measured by the withdrawal of the court procedure- with the
Act later passed to freeze all rents across Britain to pre-war
levels - The Rent Restriction Act.

Understanding Solidarity through the Glasgow Rent Strikes 1915

Role Play

This workshop celebrated the Centenary of the Rent Strikes 1915
by re-enacting the strategies of Eviction recorded in various
accounts from the time.

Activity - Young people used
the Papier Mache Factor to
re-enact a case where flour
and pease-meal was pelted at
him, a 'rammy' was caused.

The End

Understanding Solidarity through the Glasgow Rent Strikes 1915

Booklist for further study

Joseph Melling, 1983, Rent Strikes-Peoples Struggle for Housing in the West of
Scotland

Nan Milton, 2002, John Maclean
Kropotkin, 1906, the Conquest of Bread
Felix Dubois, @1894, the Anarchist Peril
Tom Bell, 1941, Pioneering Days
David Kirkwood, 1935, My Life of Revolt
Willie Gallagher, 1936, Revolt on the Clyde

J Bruce Glasier, 1921, William Morris and the Early Days of the Socialist Movement
Dave Lamb, 1977, Mutinies 1917 - 1920

The Island Book Trust, 201 1 Aimhreit an Fhearainn, - The Land Struggles in Skye
and Lewis

Dr Ann Petrie, 2008, the 1915 Rent Strikes An East Coast Perspective

Ed Ronald Black, 2001, An Lasair, Anthology of 18 th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse

Ed Catherine Kerrigan, 1991 , An Anthology of Scottish Women Poets

Jonathan Macdonald, Museum Manager, Museum of the Isles, Clan Donald Lands
T rust http://www.clandonald.com/heritaae/archives-librarv/

William M Adler, 2012, the Man Who Never Died, Bloomsbury USA

CD, Music, 1987, Flying Fish, ‘IWW Rebel Voices’

CD Music, 1990, Smithsonian Folkways, ‘Don’t Mourn Organise’

IWW - Little Red Songbook

Film -Red Skirts on Clydeside, 1984, Director Jenny Woodley, Christine Bellamy,
Sheffield Film CooP 40.37 minutes

Film -Behind The Rent Strike- Kirby Strike 1972, Director Nick Broomfield, 50 mins,
http://nickbroomfield.com/Behind-The-Rent-Strike

Film - Sylvia Pankhurst, Worldwrite - 90 minutes ASIN: B004QINSJ2

Understanding Solidarity through the Glasgow Rent Strikes 1915

Images of Union Membership Cards

NB, These are reproduction and not historically accurate card designs.

Union

Amalgamated Society

of Shipwrights

Amalgamated Society
of Engineers

Union

Membership

Gas and General
Workers Union

1915

Union

Membership

sis

Educational Institute
of Scotland

1915

National Federation

of Women Workers

Union

Membership

Electrical Trades Unioi

1915

Understanding Solidarity through the Glasgow Rent Strikes 1915

Industrial Workers
Of The World, (IWW)
Established in 1905

KKKKn I000C

am a Union.

I am 20,000 people. 0

THE WORKER

ORGAN OF THE CLYDE WORKERS COMMITTEE

Clyde Workers Committee - Circumvented the inactivity of union leadership and acted in solidarity. Their Paper The
Worker was shut down before issue 5 was printed, http://contentdm.wa rwick.ac.uk/cdm/ref/collection/tav/id/3685

http://sites.scran.ac.uk/redclyde/redclyde/rc 016 a.html

If anyone wishes to add more Anarchist info to this text
or images then we will try to add it in. SoR, SR

Understanding Solidarity through the Glasgow Rent Strikes 1915

Fake ID 1

Name

Mary Barbour

Age at 1915

40

Dates 22.02,1875-02.04.1958

Address

Govan,

Place of Work

Thread Twister Carpet Factory

Family details

Links to AEU
Unions

Married to David Barbour 1896
engineer

2 Sons aged under 19 years AEU

members

All work in Fairfields Shipyard

Family Network

Brothers and Sisters up to 6

Member of

Memberships

Member of the Kinning Park
Cooperative guild

Actions Taken

Organised tenant committees and
eviction resistance

Understanding Solidarity through the Glasgow Rent Strikes 1915

Mary Barbour and Family Community Actions

Action 1 - Buy food in the Co-op at Govan X

Action 2 - Give husband and sons Union Members
Notices to put up in Windows at Work.

Action 3 - Visit Renfrewshire by bus to see parents and
spread the Window Campaign

Action 4 - Employ Mary Murphy to Wash clothes in the
Steamie in Harhill Street

Action 5 - Husband and sons visit the football park and
spread the word

Action 6- Travel to Carpet Factory on the bus 10 times
for 1 weeks work

Action 7 - collect milk from Hughie on Milk Cart

Action 8 - Attend Kinning Park Cooperative Meeting

Action 9 - Attend Glasgow Women's Housing
Association

Action 10- Husband and sons attends Engineering
Union Meeting.

Understanding Solidarity through the Glasgow Rent Strikes 1915

Fake ID 2

Glasgow Municipal Election. 1st Nov.. 1921.

30 th (GOVAN) WARD.

HELEN CRAWFURD

Communist Candidate .

COMMITTED ROOMS 35 QUEEN STREET. COVAN*

Name

Helen Crawfurd

Age at 1915

Age 38

Dates 1877-1954

Address

The Manse Anderson

Place of Work

Anderson slum area

Family details

Married to Reverend Alexander
Montgomerie Crawfurd died 1914
No children

Family Network

3 sisters 3 brothers

Father owns Bakery shops in Gorbals

Member of

Memberships

Suffragettes, Communist Party
ILP

Actions Taken

Secretary of Glasgow Women's Housing
Association

Militant Suffragette, imprisoned for
smashing windows, inflammatory
comments, 8 days hunger strike released
under the Cat and Mouse Act.

20,000 industrial support from the Clyde
Workers' Committee (CWC). Rent
Restrictions Act of 1915

Understanding Solidarity through the Glasgow Rent Strikes 1915

Helen Crawfurd

Action 1 - Buy food in the Co-op at Govan X

Action 2 - Attend Suffragette Meetings by bus,

Glasgow city centre

Action 3 - Visit Renfrewshire by bus to see parents and
spread the Window Campaign

Action 4 - Employ Mary Murphy to Wash clothes in the
Steamie in Harhill Street, Govan

Action 5 - Meeting of Glasgow Women's Housing
Association, City Centre , Glasgow.

Action 6- Attend Meeting of the Independent Labour
Party in City Centre, Glasgow

Action 7 - collect milk from Hughie on Milk Cart

Action 8 - Attend Kinning Park Cooperative Meeting

Action 9 - Buy Hat from Milner in Burleigh Street,
Govan

Understanding Solidarity through the Glasgow Rent Strikes 1915

Fake ID 3

Name

Agnes Dollan

Age at 1915

38

Dates 1887- 1966

Address

Place of Work

worked in factory then telephone
operator

Family details

James Dollan irish miner, wrote for
Forward ILP Conchie Wormwood scrubs
James 1913, journalist

Family

Network

10 brothers and sisters, father
blacksmith left school at eleven

Member of

Trade unionist and militant suffragette.

Actions Taken

Memberships

Treasurer of the Glasgow Womens Housing
ass. Organised tenant cttees and eviction
resistance Pacifist feminist and suffragette;
Socialist politician; public antiwar protests
throughout World War 1; led local Women's
International League 1915; co-founded
Women's Peace Crusade 1916; jailed in rent
protest 1917

Understanding Solidarity through the Glasgow Rent Strikes 1915

Agnes Dollan

Action 1 - Buy food in the Co-op at Govan X

Action 2 - Attend Trade Union Meeting in City Halls, City centre ,
Glasgow

Action 3 - Get the bus to the Post Office Communications Union
Meeting, Glasgow City Centre

Action 4 - Visit Renfrewshire by bus to see parents and spread the
Window Campaign

Action5 - Employ Mary Murphy to Wash clothes in the Steamie in
Harhill Street, Govan

Action 6 - Meeting of Glasgow Women's Housing Association,

City Centre , Glasgow.

Action 7- Attend Meeting of the Independent Labour Party in City
Centre, Glasgow

Action 8 - collect milk from Hughie on Milk Cart

Action 9 - Attend Kinning Park Cooperative Meeting

Action 10 - Husband attend Miners Union Meeting, Glasgow City
centre

Action 11- Husband and Son attend the Public Baths in Harhill
Street, Govan.

Action 12 - Take bus 10 times to telecom factory in Govan Rd.

Understanding Solidarity through the Glasgow Rent Strikes 1915

Fake ID 4

Name

Mary Murphy

Age at 1915

Dates 1880 - 1950

Address

13 Nethan Street , Govan

Places of Work

Mary - Washer - woman, back closes in Govan

Patrick - working in Cleansing Department at top of
Helen Street, Govan

Family details

Bom in Pollokshields

Married 1 899 Patrick Murphy, immigrant farmer
from Ireland Children - 8 children 2 die

Family Network

6 Brothers and sisters

Member of

Catholic Parish Church
Member of Cooperative Society
Women's Peace Crusade

Actions Taken

Rent refusal, Alarms, Pelting, Demonstrating

Understanding Solidarity through the Glasgow Rent Strikes 1915

Mary Murphy, 13 Nethan Street, Govan

• Action 1 - Buy food in the Co-op at Govan X

• Action 2 - Attend Kinning Park Co-op Meetings

• Action 3 - Attend church, Govan

• Action 4 - Visit Pollokshields by bus to see
parents and spread the Window Campaign

• Action5 - Work in wash house at Rosneath
Street

• Action 6- Meeting of Glasgow Women's
Housing Association, City Centre , Glasgow.

• Action 7- Work in wash house in Govan road

. Action 8- Work in Wash house in Elder Street

• Action 9 - Attend Kinning Park Cooperative
Meeting

. Action 10- Husband and Son attend the Public
Baths in Harhill Street, Govan.

. Action 11 Attend Womens Peace Crusade
Meeting

Understanding Solidarity through the Glasgow Rent Strikes 1915

Fake ID 5

Name

Mary Clark

Age at 1915

Age 20

Date| 1895 - 1980

Address

Roseneath Street, Govan

Place of Work

Bus Conductress

Family details

Single, living at home

Family Network

Father- engineer/welder in

Babcocks

Mother - milner

Two brothers ( 1 died ) one

sister

Member of

Coop Kinning Park

Actions Taken

Pass the Word

Understanding Solidarity through the Glasgow Rent Strikes 1915

Mary Clark

Action 1 - Buy food in the Co-op at Govan X

Action 2 - Attend dance Hall, City Centre, Glasgow

Action 3 - Visit Partick by bus to see grand parents and
spread the Window Campaign

Action 4 - Gets milk from Hughie Milk Cart

Action 5 - Travels to Ibrox Garage Depot, Govan

Action 6- Travels to City Centre, Glasgow

Action 7 - Attend Kinning Park Cooperative Meeting

Action 8 - Transport Union Meeting, Glasgow, City
Centre

Understanding Solidarity through the Glasgow Rent Strikes 1915

Name

Hughie McFlynne

Age at 1915

Age 12

Dates 1905 - i98o

Address

867 Govan Road , Govan

Place of Work

Delivery Boy for Ross's local
dairy milk cart

Family details

Single, eldest child, living at
home

Family Network

Father - at war

Mother - seamstress

three brothers ( 1 died ) 2 sisters

Member of

Clarion Scouts Cycling Club
Socialist Sunday School

Actions Taken

Understanding Solidarity through the Glasgow Rent Strikes 1915

Hughie McFlynne

Action 1 - Meet mother from work, Govan

Action 2 - Attend Socialist Sunday School, Govan

Action 3 - Deliver to Rosneath Street, Govan

Action 4 - Visit Pollokshaws by bus to see
grandparents

Action5 - Employ Mary Murphy to Wash clothes in
the Steamie in Harhill Street, Govan

Action 6 - Deliver milk to Nethan Street, Govan

Action 7- Deliver milk to Elder Street, Govan

Action 8 - Visit the Dairy Harmony Row, Govan

Action 9 -Attend Clarion Cycle Club, Glasgow

Action 10- Attend public baths Harhill Street, Govan

Action 11 - Deliver milk to Albion Motors Factory
South Street.

Understanding Solidarity through the Glasgow Rent Strikes 1915

Fake ID7

Name

John Gallagher

Age at 1915

Age 15

Datfl 1900-1982

Address

12 Shaw Street, Govan

Place of Work

Horse handler apprentice at Rope
works, Helen Street, Govan

Family details

Single, 4 sisters 2 brothers of family
of 8

Family Network

Father James and brothers - at war
Mother , Alice -Thermotank
engineer

Member of

Football Team

Associated Horsemen's Union

Actions Taken

Pass the Word

Understanding Solidarity through the Glasgow Rent Strikes 1915

John Gallagher 12 Shaw Street

Action 1 - Attend football training, Kinning Park, 6
times

Action 2 - Attend dance hall in Glasgow in City Halls,
City centre , Glasgow

Action 3 - Attend Thermotank to meet mother after
work Govan

Action 4- Visit Gorbals by bus to see grandparents
and spread the Window Campaign

Action5 - Attend public baths in Govan

Action 6 - Attend Co-op to buy food, Govan

Action 7 - collect milk from Hughie on Milk Cart

Action 8 - attend meeting Associated Horsemen's
Union